51,000 sacked in Borno, Adamawa, Yobe villages – NEMA

By Mohammed Kandi with agency report

The north-east region of Nigerian office of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Maiduguri has said that it has recorded over 51,000 people displaced by the recent Boko Haram terrorists activities.

The displaced persons, according to NEMA’s Zonal Information Officer, Abdulkadir Ibrahim, who made this known to our reporter, were either forced to leave their homes or got their houses razed down by the Boko Haram.

Ibrahim said the 51,000 Internally-displaced persons (IDPs) were those that were affected by the crisis before the upsurge of attacks that occurred last.

“We are still recording more IDPs in our various camps in Borno and Adamawa states”, said the Zonal Information Officer. NEMA and the Red Cross are still compiling details of IDPs, but for now we have 51,000 of the spread between the two states”.

Despite the huge number of IDPs recorded, Peoples Daily gathered that NEMA still faces challenges of delivering relief materials to the victims, as the deplored state of security frustrates the movement of relief material in the states.

Though NEMA officials had declined comments, it was gathered that the displaced victims especially in Borno state still suffer due to insufficient relief relief items.

A top civil servant in Borno state who pleaded anonymity while chatting with our reporter said NEMA cannot on its own take care of these number of people that are displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency. He said despite the problems in the state “there is no State Emergency Management Agency in place even though the Federal Government had directed that the present State Emergency Relief Agency be replaced by the SEMA, Borno state has not inaugurated its own SEMA”.

The official said “without an established SEMA it will be difficult, especially in Borno state, to effectively cater for these rising number of displaced persons. NEMA is a federal government agency and its activities cannot be holistic, that is why the state must have its Emergency Management Agency established”.